Background Noise

Background Noise follows the development of sound as an artistic medium and illustrates how sound is put to use within modes of composition, installation, and performance. While chronological in its structure, Brandon LaBelles tendency to become public expressed in its ability to travel distances, foster cultural expression, and define spaces while being radically flexible. How does sound embed us within local environments while connecting us to a broader circumference? What consequence does sound art have for notions of spatiality and site-specific practice? Can we engage questions of identity and subjective experience in relation to listening and the resonance of place? Such questions are addressed through consideration of the work of a range of artists, musicians, performers, and composers, including Vito Acconci, Maryanne Amacher, Michael Asher, John Cage, Bill Fontana, Christof Migone, Max Neuhaus, Yasunao Tone, Achim Wollscheid, and Iannis Xenakis. Intersecting material analysis with theoretical frameworks spanning art and architectural theory, performance studies, and media theory, Background Noise makes the case that sound art should be at the core of contemporary culture.